Stranded With The Snow Leopard

by Jade White

  Tony choked back tears of frustration. “Hey, it’s okay, I’m not really cut out to be a dad anyway,” he replied, putting a hand on his cousin’s shoulder. “Heh, who knows, we could share, it’s been working out so far?” A twinkle began to develop in Tony’s dark eyes.

  A wry grin crossed Keith’s face. “You know, sometimes I do go away for a while...”

  Kim coughed. “Hello? I’m right here. Don’t I get a say in this?” Suddenly a look of pain crossed Kim’s face as the drumming and chanting continued. “What is happening?” she whispered.

  Her eyes changed to the ice blue feline eyes Betty observed during the meeting with the girls. Kim sat up from her prone position on the table as the drum continued to pound louder in her ear and Rusty continued to chant.

  She felt her body shift into another space and time as fur grew on her skin and her internal anatomy changed shape into a large, pure white mountain lion.

  She stood on the cot, growling at the men around her. Her long canine teeth bared as her upper lip curled in a dangerous snarl. Her brain was so far away, almost as if it was stuffed in a box, and all she could do was scream silently as the animal she had become stared at those in the room.

  Rusty continued chanting and Junior kept the drumming. Keith looked at the beautiful feline form that Kim had assumed and knew what to do. “Kim!” he shouted. “You need to listen to the drums. Come back to the drums, Kim!”

  Tony followed suit. “You need to listen to the drums! Please...Kim, don’t get stuck, come back.” He pleaded with the woman locked within the beast.

  Kim felt as if she was swimming upwards from a deep lagoon. She heard Keith and Tony pleading with her, and the surge of emotion from both men formed a golden thread in her psyche onto which she latched. The drums became louder in her mind as she focused intently on them, while pulling herself up by the golden cord the two men who loved her had unwittingly supplied her with.

  She felt her body become more human as she pulled herself closer to her conscious self. She then felt the cot underneath her as she found herself positioned on it on all fours. “What...the hell happened?” she asked.

  Betty cleared her throat and gave Rusty a deadly stare. “You shifted, dear. Looks like your grandfather might have been one of us, after all.”

  Keith and Tony looked at each other and back at the woman they loved. Keith would be the one to take the vows and tie the knot. That was for certain. Tony winced with pain at the thought, but the choice was made when he unknowingly sired the child that Kim carried inside of her.

  “What do you mean?” Kim asked, completely confused.

  “You see, a very long time ago, I had a baby. Back then we were all made to birth in the hospital and it was run by the nuns. Sisters of Saint something, I forget. Anyway, the way we had our babies, they knocked us out, and pulled them out with forceps. They said it was the kindest way to go about it so we wouldn’t feel anything.

  “Well, when I came to, they told me my baby...” Betty teared up at the pain of the distant memory, “had been born still.” She dabbed her dark eyes with a handkerchief she had with her. “Now I didn’t believe them for one minute. I felt that baby living in me up until the point they knocked me out with the ether. I knew he was alive out there somewhere. I felt it. Sometimes the tie a mother has to her child is so strong that only death can break it, and there was no way my baby was dead.”

  Kim stared at Betty completely astounded. “Are you saying...?”

  “Yes, they stole my baby and put him up for adoption somewhere. They used to do that all the time back then. Now, when your grandfather got lost, and we rescued him, I felt an immediate connection to him. Like I should know him, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.”

  “Was he able to shift like, well... me?”

  “I don’t know,” Betty replied. “We all need to be shown how by the Great Spirit. If his link was broken, there was no way for him to be able to shift.”

  Kim looked to Rusty who was smiling from ear to ear, and back to Betty. “How old are you two, anyway?”

  “The Great Spirit gives us as many years as we need to do the tasks He needs us to do,” Betty said, “and that’s all you really need to know.”

  Kim looked at both the elders, completely dumbfounded. She was a shifter, just like Tony and Keith. She was going to be mated to Keith, with permission to fool around with Tony when Keith had to go away on business. “So when’s the mating ceremony?”

  Betty laughed. “Well, we can have it any time between now and the fall equinox. You’ll be the only ones tying the knot so it’s all up to you.” She placed her hand on Kim’s shoulder. “You know, it really isn’t unheard of for a woman to be in your position, especially one of such high status.”

  Kim blinked in the dim lamplight. “High status?”

  “Why yes, you’re my great granddaughter. So in the village, if you have the gifts, you can probably be the next shaman. We don’t really care if it’s a man, woman or both. Rusty and I share the responsibility and have for quite some time. Keith had shown some promise in the esoteric arts but his interest waned when he picked up the video games.”

  Keith looked down at his hands in shame. He knew he could do some of the things Rusty could, but didn’t feel confident enough in his discernment to take the leap to full apprentice. He preferred the concrete here and now to the nebulous realm of the spirits.

  Kim stood up and went over to Keith and looked at him with her bright blue eyes. “So, what do you think? Will you have me as your mate?”

  Keith teared up, his soft face full of adoration for the woman in front of him. “You betcha, and yeah, when I’m not home, I don’t care if Tony comes over. We’re best friends. It’s what we do.”

  Tony smiled. Second wasn’t so bad. At least his cousin wasn’t cutting him out totally. “Hey, I’m happy for you, bud, and thanks. You’ll be a better dad than me, anyway.”

  They shook hands while Keith had his arm around Kim’s shoulder. Keith was beaming from ear to ear. He knew the secret Tony had told him and promised to carry it to the grave with him. “Hey, I’m glad that Smiley fuckhead finally got run out, eh?” he asked.

  Tony shot him a quick glare. “Er, yeah. I had a message come over the wire last night that he had been found dead. Cause of death was a rattle snake bite I guess,” he quickly lied.

  He saw the tension visibly drain from Kim’s body. That was all the confirmation that he needed to show he made the right decision. She now could breathe easy from here on out, no longer having to look over her shoulder for the psycho that had sought her life for all this time.

  Betty cleared her throat. “Okay everyone, who wants some tea and cakes? I have some all ready upstairs.”

  They all readily agreed and went up the stairs for a snack.

  *

  The leaves were beginning to change color in the early September sun, shades of yellow, orange and brown were peeking through the green leaves of the alders and other deciduous trees that lined the small Rocky Mountain valley. A cheeky raven hopped along the plastic folding chairs that lined either side of the now barren fruit orchard while preparations for the mating ceremony were well under way.

  The entire village was slated to attend. A few hundred chairs were set out and in between the two sections there was an aisle for the happy couple to walk down. The raven hopped along this aisle as if inspecting it for any flaws.

  People started filing into the village square as the time for the ceremony approached. They all sat down in the chairs that had been provided. The raven flew up to one of the branches of a cherry tree that was next to the makeshift podium at the head of the aisle.

  Rusty came up to the podium, dressed in his ceremonial garb. He had an eagle feather in one silver braid, and a raven feather in the other. He looked up at the raven that was perched above him and said, “You better not shit on me, or I’ll make sure you’re stuffed and mounted in my house.”

  The raven made a sound similar
to a human chuckle and groomed itself. It felt that there was something important going on so it wanted to be in on the action. Since Kim had rescued it, it bonded to the humans of the village. Ravens are social birds, traveling in groups of two or three called murders. This raven had been solitary for its entire life, and now had found a place to call home. These people were its friends, and that’s all it really cared about. The village fed the silly bird whenever they saw it around. They laughed at its child-like antics, and marveled at the amount of skill it possessed to perform simple tasks. One time, someone threw an empty bag of chips on the ground and the raven quickly swooped down and placed it in a nearby garbage can.

  The crowd chatted quietly among themselves while they waited in hushed anticipation for the ceremony to begin.

  Suddenly a drum began to beat. A slow steady rhythm similar to that of a heart beat. A second, higher pitched drum began its cadence slightly off beat to the first drum, but carried the same lub dub of a heart. As the drums kept beating, their beats began to meet up, as two drums, beat as one in the pattern of a heart beat. The crowd hushed themselves as the drums continued their beat, and looked down towards the end of the aisle.

  Kim, dressed in a regal outfit made from buckskin, dyed with yellow ochre, stood at the end of the aisle. Rachel had worked night and day on the elaborate outfit for Kim’s mating ceremony. She worked the yellow ochre into the soft buckskin and sewed the black onyx beads into the back of the dress in the shape of a raven. The sleeves were tasseled instead of left whole, and the dress reached just below her knee.

  Kim’s raven black hair was done up in many elaborate braids with beads and feathers woven into her raven tresses giving off a slight sparkle in the sunlight of late summer. Her thickening waist was barely visible under the loose fitting tunic dress.

  Keith stepped next to her. He was dressed in his ceremonial suit that he had worn when they found out he was the father of Kim’s child. He looked at Kim warmly and took her hand. Tony stood at the podium next to Rusty as a main witness.

  The couple slowly marched up to the podium as the drums slowly beat. Betty began to chant in the same ancient tongue Rusty used while determining the sex of Kim’s baby. Her high, quavering voice evened out as she remembered the words that many had long forgotten.

  Keith and Kim made it up to the podium and released their hands. Rusty looked at them with love and pride in his wise, old eyes, while Tony tried to mask the pain he was feeling. Sure, Kim wasn’t totally lost to him forever, but it still stung, him being put into the second’s place. Still, he thought, he was still welcome in her life, and that’s all that mattered.

  Rusty cleared his throat and began the ceremony. “We are gathered here today, to witness Keith Underhill and Kim Smith pledge themselves to each other as life mates. They are both here of their own free will. Now, we all know that traditionally our mates are chosen for us at a young age, and we develop a bond with them as we grow. It was not the case with these two, yet their bond is just as strong as the ones we forge as younglings. It is the bond of choice. Love isn’t something we fall into. Love is something we choose. We choose to stand with our mates through the good times and the bad. We choose to be with them when the sickness comes. Keith and Kim have chosen to take this pledge in front of us here today. To reinforce that choice.”

  Kim looked at Keith with adoration in her blue eyes, and he returned the look in kind.

  “Now, Kim, do you swear, to be there for Keith, through all trials, all storms and all phases of life? Do you swear to keep his home, raise his young and support him as best as you can?”

  “I do.”

  “Now, Keith, do you swear, to be there for Kim, through all trials, all storms and all phases of life? Do you swear to protect, provide for and cherish her as best as you can?”

  “I do.”

  Rusty picked up a golden cord. “Present your hands to me.”

  They raised their adjoining hands and placed them on the podium. Rusty took the golden cord and looped it around their wrists three times before tying it in an elaborate knot. The cord wasn’t tied tightly so they could slip it off after the ceremony.

  “You are joined as this knot is. To cut this knot, is to sever your mating. To sever this mating is to doom you both to live in your animal forms forever, unless it is under dire circumstances.” Rusty recalled one instance where he had to sever the knot for a woman whose mate beat her relentlessly. She chose to sacrifice her shifting ability to go free and move out of the village, away from her abusive mate.

  Keith and Kim nodded solemnly, turned around and raised their tied hands above their heads. The crowd roared in celebration as the happy couple were mated for life.

  Rusty continued. “To finish the ceremony, you need to circle the area three times going clockwise, as you will forever be going forward in time together.”

  Keith and Kim stepped down from the podium and walked down the aisle as the drums beat in the cadence of a heart. When they reached the end of the aisle they turned and walked outside of the audience, slowly in time with the drums. Smiles beamed from their faces as they completed the mating ritual. The cord grew warm on their wrists as Rusty and Betty chanted in the strange tongue. Their spirits were becoming linked as they marched clockwise around the town square.

  They stopped at the entrance of the aisle after their third circuit around the square and were met by the towering Junior. He handed Kim a small wrapped gift. He raised his hands to sign to her and she stopped him.

  “Junior, you don’t really need to sign, do you?” she asked.

  He shook his head.

  “You have been putting your thoughts in my head this whole time when we talk, haven’t you?”

  Junior nodded, shyly. “Yes. I don’t do it to many people, that’s why they think I’m stupid. I trust you though.”

  Kim smiled. “Thank you for the gift.”

  Junior blushed “Thank you for being there and giving me a chance. Maybe one day we can go to town? Find me a mate or something?” he projected with a grin.

  “Maybe,” Kim replied with a smile.

  It wasn’t long before the guests began to swarm the happy couple. Rachel was over the top with joy that the outfit she had practically rushed turned out so well. “You look amazing in that.” The large lady gushed. “I mean, I knew it would look good, since I made it and all, but I mean you look absolutely stunning in it.”

  Kim blushed and gave the woman a warm hug. “Thank you so much, Rachel. It means so much to me.”

  “You’ll give it to your daughter, right, like, if you have one,” Rachel worried.

  “You can count on it. After all, a daughter should wear her mother’s dress on her mating day, right?”

  Rachel laughed. “Exactly. Anyway the reception is over at the community hall, let’s go.”

  Keith was absolutely over the top with happiness. He was finally mated to the woman of his dreams. He wouldn’t be stuck in his feral mountain lion form forever, and his friendship with Tony was still intact. Everything was coming up roses. He walked along side of Kim while they made their way to the community center for the reception. “Hey,” Keith whispered, “maybe when we manage to work out of this cord we could sneak away.”

  Kim blushed. “Sneak away? Oh!” Her eyes glittered mischievously. “What’s a wedding without consummation?” she said with a sly wink.

  Keith grinned and nodded. “Exactly. Anyway, let’s go have some grub and some cake and sneak out while everyone is getting sloshed.”

  She readily agreed as they reached the door to the community center. She looked down the street at the steel skeleton of the general store that was in the process of getting rebuilt. Keith promised to not get in the way if she chose to go back to work after the store was rebuilt. She looked up at her mate, looked at the golden cord that tied them together, and smiled.

  Keith reached for the door and pulled it open. “You ready?” he asked.

  “You bet,” Kim replied as they
both stepped through the door and to the rest of their lives together.

  Message From The Author:

  Hiii

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